Trayvon Martin Was Not Emmett Till

Erik5 April 2012

Emmett Till was a black, 14-year-old, only child born in Chicago, Illinois. In 1955, Till was kidnapped from his great-uncle’s home in Mississippi, beaten, and brutally murdered by Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, for reportedly whistling at Carolyn Bryant, Roy’s wife and the white proprietor of Bryant’s Grocery, a store which primarily served black sharecroppers. After his murder, Till’s body was dumped in a nearby river, weighed down with a cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. Trayvon Martin’s death was a tragic loss for his family, but despite the despicable, biased, intentionally dishonest reporting of the media, Trayvon Martin was not Emmett Hill.

Emmett Hill’s killers were acquitted. They would later confess and recount the gory details for the press, and a few jurors would admit they knew Bryant and Milam were guilty. Unfortunately, many in the public sphere are trying to convince us our judicial system is stuck in 1955. They want to drive a wedge between Americans to further their own, unrelated agendas. They would like us to believe Trayvon was killed solely because of his race. They would like us to believe that Zimmerman has not been convicted of murder because a racist police force does not care about the death of a black boy. Their rhetoric is actively eroding the public’s confidence in our judicial system, but worst of all, it diminishes the injustices suffered by Americans like Emmett Till.

What follows is not an attempt to cast a verdict. We still do not have enough information to pass judgement on this case, regardless of what some claim. Instead, this is an indictment of some of those responsible for so badly poisoning this case that the honest verdict is unlikely to bring closure to at least half of those awaiting the jury’s decision.

NBC News

A few days ago, NBC News might not have made the list. Then they edited the George Zimmerman 911 call. NBC News’ version:

ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good… He looks black.

911 OPERATOR: Did you see what he was wearing?

ZIMMERMAN: Yeah, a dark hoodie.

Here’s how that part of the call actually went:

ZIMMERMAN: This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around looking about.

911 OPERATOR: Okay, this guy, is he white, black, or hispanic?

ZIMMERMAN: He looks black.

The above needs no further explanation. In fact, it was so egregious even the left-wing Mother Jones called out NBC News and accused them of damaging the liberal brand with their shoddy reporting. At present, NBC has fired no one over the above edit, and has said they will not discuss the results of their internal investigation.

Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, & every media outlet that gives them a voice.

The reverends couldn’t get to Florida fast enough to take advantage of this incident. But given their record, the pair’s endorsement ought to cast doubt on whatever banner they’ve chosen. Does no one remember Tawana Brawley, the Duke lacrosse case, or, for NC locals, Nick Mackey? Sharpton and Jackson have zero credibility. The first question they ought to be asked by any credible news reporter is, “How can we trust you when you have been proven wrong time and time again yet refuse to apologize?”

Congressional “leaders” intent on stirring racial tension for political gain.

For so-called Congressional “leaders” to take to the House floor to pass judgment on a potential criminal case before the judicial system has had time to act is a grave disrespect to their office. Their antics have been ridiculous and their claims astoundingly disconnected from the facts.

Among those in this category are Democrat Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida who said from the House floor:

This is Treyvon Martin. Trayvon Martin’s murderer is still at large. It’s been one month, thirty days, with no arrest. I want America to see this sweet young boy who was hunted down like a dog, shot in the street, and his killer is still at large.

He was executed for “WWB” in a “GC.” Walking While Black in a Gated Community.

These are just a few examples, but all carry the same core: the sinister implication, with zero evidence, that Zimmerman is a violent, racist, cold-blooded-killer who left his house to find a black boy to murder.

The New Black Panther Party & The Justice Department

Eric Holder’s Justice Department has run cover for the New Black Panther Party before when he tossed out the voter intimidation case the DOJ had already won. Now, he continues to remain silent as The New Black Panter Party distributes “wanted: dead or alive” posters about Zimmerman and advertises a $10,000 reward for his “capture.”

Zimmerman is not on the run; there is no need to “capture” him. Further, the last time I checked, death threats weren’t protected speech. And if it was wrong for Zimmerman to “take the law into his own hands,” isn’t vigilante “justice” by the New Black Panther Party equally wrong?

Twitter

Despite explicitly prohibiting death threats in its TOS, Twitter refuses to remove the @KillZimmerman account which has tweeted such gems as:

Those who “know” George Zimmerman is innocent.

Those who claim Zimmerman is innocent beyond even a shadow of a doubt are as wrong as many of the individuals listed above. There is simply not enough evidence to claim Zimmerman’s innocence as fact. Indeed, he was nearly prosecuted for negligent homicide on the night of the incident, and he may still be prosecuted. Zimmerman’s supporters also need to wait for a trial and a verdict.